Business leaders call for urgent clarification over 'conflicting' Covid-19 advice

Business leaders have called for urgent clarification on what activities directors can carry out while furloughed, branding government advice “conflicting”.

The Institute of Directors has its Scottish headquarters in the centre of Edinburgh.

The Institute of Directors (IoD) said information published this week by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) was more restrictive than guidance available online.

It noted that it appears to prevent a furloughed director, where no other director is available, from undertaking basic tasks such as paying suppliers or administering the furloughing of other staff members.

Roger Barker, head of corporate governance at the IoD, said: “This new guidance appears to raise a whole host of unintended consequences. It’s hard to believe the government has thought through the implications for small companies with only one or two directors.

“If the intention is to help keep businesses afloat during the lockdown, directors must be able to continue working while furloughed, to try and get their company off life support.

“This would be no different from the rules for the self-employed. On an even more basic level, it’s unworkable for a company to have no-one at the wheel in any respect whatsoever.

“So far, directors of small companies have largely been caught between two stools, and they need support.

“They don’t fit easily into the support schemes that have established for employees and the self-employed, and it’s past time government woke up to the problem.”